Chinese Pride: The Story of Kong Yong Paperback – November 2, 2025

Chinese Pride tells the life story of Kong Yong, an illiterate Chinese peasant who fled the Japanese invasion in 1937 and rebuilt his life in Egypt, where he rose to prominence as a dealer in Chinese antiques and owner of the country’s second Chinese restaurant before his death in 1997. His journey is marked by a series of relationships with seven women—from a prostitute who initiated him into adulthood, to his first wife Ying Yi, the cabaret singer and leftist activist Ru Shi, the Jewish half-Polish, half-British Talia Yankovsky, the belly dancer Kawkab, Princess Nourhan, and finally Rosana, his Egyptian wife and mother of his only son, Adam. A recurring ritual of foot massage, performed with tenderness and ritualistic precision, becomes a poetic symbol of intimacy, devotion, and the intersection of sensuality and spirituality in Kong Yong’s complex life. Read more